Imagining a (Rocksteady) Batman style TMNT Game

Sometime last year, there was a rumor that Rocksteady was making a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Batman: Arkham City is my favorite game of all time (SO WHAT, WANNA FIGHT ABOUT IT?!) and I love the Turtles, so I was extremely excited and hoped the rumor was true. But... alas... it was only a rumor.

Sad Panda. :(

Time has passed and Activision appears to have the TMNT license now, so my hopes of this being a real possibility continues to dwindle. However, it's still fun to think about what the game could be like, even if imagining it is also, in a sense, torture.

Thinking about this game makes my mind explode...... it hurts so good.

As far back as the NES, I recall games that were basically clones of other games. Even now, we have games that are clones of popular games, like Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (which is a straight-up copy of Smash Brothers - Sony didn't even try to be original at all.) Though clones like Battle Royale do tend to bring out the troll in me, I don't completely hate the idea. Now that I've played a few God of War games, it's clear how much of that franchise was copied in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Darksiders. I know they're derivative, and I'm OK with it.

That said, I'm going to share some ideas for a Rocksteady TMNT game that would be derivative of Rocksteady's own Batman games:

The Turtle's Home

In Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman has a batcave below Arkham Asylum. It would be cool to go to the Turtle's Home in the sewers.

Fighting in the Streets

In Batman: Arkham City, you fight a lot of thugs in the streets of Gotham. In the Turtles game, the heroes in a half shell would fight street thugs, only they wouldn't be henchmen of a particular villain like they were in the Batman games. More like Red Dead Redemption than Batman, I picture random situations throughout the world where you help old ladies who are getting robbed or chase after guys who just robbed a bank - stuff like that. I picture fights with the Foot Clan taking place on the rooftops. I'm not opposed to the Turtles fighting villains in the streets, just as long as there is a mix of common people there too. A big part of TMNT is moments where the people of New York encounter the Turtles and/or other mutants and freak out.

Fighting the Foot Soldiers

Like the female assassins in the League of Shadows, I'd like the foot soldiers to be smarter & quicker enemies than the thugs you fight on the streets. Like the encounters with Joker's henchmen, you'd need to fight a lot of them at once, which happens quite frequently in TMNT stories.

HAHA! Look... there's even a manhole cover - can't help but think of TMNT when I see those.

Bebop & Rocksteady (the villain, not the developer)

I haven't seen Bebop and Rocksteady in the IDW reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, and I don't think they were in the original Eastman & Laird comics either. I love Bebop & Rocksteady though, and I think this idea would help them fit well into this game. I'd like to see them in a similar role as the Abramovici Twins in Batman: Arkham City. Like the twins, you'd encounter them separately and they'd be supported by some Foot Soldiers or something.

Slash

Batman was chased down by Killer Croc in the sewers of Arkham Asylum. I think it would be cool to be chased by Slash in the sewers of New York City. Unlike the events of Arkham Asylum, I'd prefer that the chase end with a proper battle (at least let me punch or kick him once, HAHA!)

Gadgets/Weapons

Batman has his batarangs and the Turtles have their throwing stars. I don't remember if he had smoke pellets in Arkham Asylum, but I know the Dark Knight had them in Arkham City. The Turtles are ninjas, so dropping smoke would be fitting (I THINK I've seen them do it a few times in either the IDW comics or the new Nickelodeon cartoon.) As for the grapple hook... well, the Turtles' isn't as high tech as Batman's, but they do use grapple hooks to climb things. Honestly, if he hasn't already, Donatello could make a more high tech version that's at least functionally similar to Bruce's, even if it's not as fancy. In most of the TMNT stuff I've seen, they do it the old fashioned way and just throw theirs.

On a related note, I could see Donnie hacking security and what not too, so that aspect of the Arkham games could easily be a part of the Turtles game as well.

Casey Jones

In Batman: Arkham City, there are part of the game where you play as Catwoman (as long as you had the DLC, but I'm going to ignore that aspect of it.) In the Turtles game, there would be parts where you play as Casey Jones! It would be more entertaining if he was working with Raph during those parts, but even if it was just him going solo, I'd love it!

Shredder / Karai

Even thematically, I could see the Turtles game having similarities to Arkham City. In Arkham City, Ra's al Ghul wants Batman to join the League of Shadows and Talia also tries to persuade him to do so. In the IDW TMNT comics and the Nickelodeon cartoon (if not other TMNT incarnations as well), Shredder wants Leonardo to join the Foot Clan and his granddaughter (IDW) / daughter (Nickelodeon) Karai plays a part in trying to make that happen.

At Foot Clan HQ, Shredder asks Karai why she has not yet attempted to bring Leonardo to him (as he intends to make Leo his second in command). Karai tells her grandfather that capturing Leo will require a very special team. Shredder is aware of her plan but reminds her that she lacks the mutagen to make it happen. Karai assures him that she has a solution for that.

I'm sure I will come up with more ideas, but these are the things I've thought about so far. Man... the more I think about it, the more I want this game!

What about you? Would you want a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game that was somewhat derivative of the Batman Arkham games, whether it was made by Rocksteady or properly handled by another developer? If so, do you have any ideas to add?

EDIT: DUH. CO-OP. It would have co-op. DUH. DUH. DUH. HAHA! I forgot to mention that. So besides co-op, what ideas do you have? :P